‘Secret weapon’ of Canadian snowboarders created by Apex Composites

Burlington company developed mysterious carbon plate mounted between snowboard, bindings

‘Secret weapon’ of Canadian snowboarders created by Apex Composites

Randy Risling –The Toronto Star

MADE IN BURLINGTON:

Locally-based firm Apex Composites is credited with creating a carbon-fibre composite plate that has helped improve the performance of Canadian snowboarders on the World Cup circuit this season. Among those who have contributed to the firm’s thousands of hours of designing and fabricating the top-secret plate are, rear left to right, Trevor Lichty, Matthew Pirie, Mackenzie Swanson and Brian McGugan, and, front left to right, Matthew Clarke, Gerry Kavanaugh, Adam Kavanaugh and BJ Lavigne. Apex’s services were enlisted through Canada’s Own the Podium program.

It’s all happening at a non-descript industrial park in Burlington, the creation of a secret weapon that’s giving Canadian snowboarding star Jasey Jay Anderson and his teammates an edge over the rest of the world heading toward the 2010 Winter Games.

The objective: Turn carbon fibre into Olympic gold.

The snowboard plate system was developed by Apex Composites for the Canadian snowboard team through Own The Podium’s top-secret program.

Made of carbon-fibre composites, the plates sit between the board and the bindings and put the athletes more in touch with the snow, allowing them to take more aggressive lines and make cleaner turns.

In other words, they’re riding faster than ever before. The performance of the Canadian snowboard alpine team — World Cup victories in all three men’s races, six medals overall — is causing a stir on the circuit.

How good is this plate system?

Anderson, who has a reputation for railing about equipment problems throughout his career, is a happy and contented man these days.

“The peace of mind I’m getting from that is, honestly, you could drop a million dollars on my lap and take my plate away, and I would be the most miserable person on Earth because I would know exactly what that means,” said Anderson. “I’d rather have this plate than a million-dollar cheque.”

He means it.

“I’ve never slept so good in my life because I don’t worry about anything,” said Anderson.

It’s the opposition who are losing sleep now.

After trailing in technology all these years, the Canadians are being careful to protect their secret. They’ve taken to covering up the plate system with wood-grain MACtac adhesive and duct tape so their rivals can’t get a good look.

“Other teams are starting to ask where can they get them,” said Matt Morison, after winning the season-opener in Colorado last month. “The cat’s kind of out of the bag. They know the Canadians have something really special going on.”

It’s not for sale, either. The deal Apex president Gerry Kavanaugh cut with Own The Podium, the program started to help Canada become the No. 1 medal-winning nation at the 2010 Games, gives them the exclusive rights.

Besides, you get the impression Kavanaugh and Apex manager Matt Clarke, who are donating hundreds of hours to the project, would not divulge anything to a competing nation, even under threat of torture.

“They’re all trying to scramble to copy what they think they see,” Kavanaugh said during a plant tour. “Of course, what they see is not really happening. And, even if they did see it, it takes a lot of work to make it work the way that it does.”

While giving a reporter a look at the plate system, Kavanaugh and Clarke made sure to cover up parts that reveal how it’s attached.

“The real system is covered up very well,” Clarke said. “This is sort of a representation, but those are not the true positions. And how it’s attached, we don’t want to show that right now. That’s all very top secret. There’s a lot of secret sauce in how it’s attached.”

The project got started with Toronto snowboarder Michael Lambert, who wanted to try something different with his equipment and went looking for a company working with carbon-fibre composites. He sent out about 30 e-mails.

“I searched and searched and searched and I finally stumbled across these guys,” Lambert said.

He found a kindred spirit in Kavanaugh, a former race car driver who remembered what it was like to need help during his career.

Money certainly isn’t the motivation. The project will cost Apex about $75,000 more than they’re receiving from Own The Podium. Kavanaugh, 29, and Clarke, 22, are totally dedicated to helping the athletes. Clarke wakes up at 6 a. m. when the team races in Europe so he can get results on the Internet.

“It’s pride, really,” Clarke said.

The athletes recognize Apex has gone above and beyond. For 34-year-old Anderson, their work has been a godsend. He’s believed for years that there were certain things that could be done to improve the equipment and had many ideas. In fact, Apex has used a crude version of a plate system Anderson developed as the model for the one that has turned into such a success.

“These are all things I wanted to do, but I knew how big and how ample the project was, so I didn’t even dream of this,” said Anderson. “But then when Apex was presented to me, I said, ‘Can you guys do this?’ And all they said was, ‘Yes, we can.’ They’re super nice people.”

One of the reasons Apex has had such a big impact is that manufacturers have abandoned alpine snowboard racing because the market isn’t there for the equipment — it’s all in freestyle snowboarding.

Alpine snowboarders are left to fend for themselves to make and modify their own equipment or find “boutique” builders, who make boards out of their garage.

So, the Canadians are benefiting from research and development that most of their opponents can’t match. The plate system allows the board to flex more while the boots remain stationary, giving the riders more contact with the snow and thus more speed. Tests done at one of the training camps demonstrated the boards were on average a half-second faster during a 31-second run.

“As the course gets more torn up, the advantage is bigger,” said Kavanaugh.

“That’s what we always wanted from Day 1. Qualifying’s one thing when it’s on a clean course, but you have to do 10 runs to get a gold medal. By the time you get to the 10th run, that course is a pile of crap. How well your equipment works when you’re on that type of course is where they have the advantage right now.”

Kavanaugh, who plans to go to the Olympics with Clarke to watch the snowboarding, said he’s envisioned a Canadian on the podium.

“Obviously, we’d love gold but I’d be ecstatic with a medal in the Olympics,” he said. “That would make it all worthwhile.”